1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of apparatus for self-checkout of products purchased by a consumer, and more particularly, to an apparatus for self checkout of produce items selected from a bulk source which have not been bar coded.
2. Prior Art
Modern retail stores such as supermarkets generally have checkout lanes with equipment for optically scanning bar codes affixed to the products being purchased. The scanning equipment includes a scanned laser for illuminating the bar code, a bar code reader for receiving light reflected from the bar code and converting the code to numeric or alphanumeric data, and a processor for retrieving stored data indexed to the product identity defined by the bar code.
Some of the checkout lanes may be designated for self-checkout. These permit a purchaser to self-scan his or her purchases using a substantially unattended checkout apparatus, thus reducing the number of store personnel that must be dedicated to checkout lanes. Supermarkets especially view self-checkout as desirable because these stores are particularly sensitive to labor costs due to their typically low profit margins.
For most efficient operation, self-checkout requires that bar codes be affixed to all items in the store. Items without a bar code require special intervention by store personnel, and this is counter-productive to the goal of self-checkout which is to decrease requirements on the time of store personnel. It is almost universal for prepackaged items to have a bar code applied by the manufacturer, and self-checkout of these prepackaged items is not a problem. However, produce items and the like, for example, which are selected for purchase from a bulk supply, present problems because only approximately 15% of produce items are bar coded upon delivery to the supermarket. Moreover, bulk produce items are often priced by weight, and it may be impractical to fully encode the stock.
In a store having equipment for self-checkout, bulk produce may be handled in several different ways enabling a product identity code to be associated with the produce item. Firstly, produce items may be prepackaged by store personnel who apply a bar code label which is translated into an item description and price by the self-checkout equipment. This method has the drawback of requiring additional labor in the produce department, namely to package and possibly to weigh the produce items. Further, consumers generally prefer to select Individual produce items from bulk, so that all the items are in accordance with the consumer's desires as to size, ripeness or the like. Retailers are reluctant to interfere with this consumer preference.
In another method for self-checkout of bulk produce items, produce items which have been selected by a consumer for purchase are presented to store personnel who then weigh the produce, determine a price and apply a bar code label which can be scanned to determine identity and price. A station for this procedure may be located in the produce department or near the checkout area at a front of the store. This system still requires additional labor on the part of store personnel, and also requires a time consuming additional step for the consumer to have the produce marked.
A further method involves applying a generic bar code label identifying the item by general description (e.g., a type of fruit). This information is applied by the produce department. The consumer scans the bar code at the self-checkout machine and places the produce on a special "scanner scale". The produce is weighed and priced automatically by the self-checkout machine, which references a stored price per unit of weight, and calculates the amount debited to the customer. This method still requires that store personnel maintain supplies of bar code labels for the produce. Further, bar code labels are difficult to apply to certain produce items, consumers may forget to apply the labels or wish not to apply adhesive labels to their food items, etc. For these and various other reasons, produce items reach the self-checkout machine without labels attached.
Another method for handling bulk produce items is disclosed in patent application Ser. No. 07/185,167, now abandoned, and the continuation thereof Ser. No. 07/420,685, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,053, granted Oct. 16, 1990, owned by CheckRobot, Inc. The method involves displaying produce icons on a video screen at the self-checkout station, whereby the consumer inputs the type of produce by selecting the corresponding icon on the display screen. This method is limited by the size of the display screen and the limited number of produce icons which can be effectively displayed on the screen, particularly since different produce items may have a similar appearance at least by outline (e.g., apples vs. plums, red grapes vs. concords, etc.).
The present invention overcomes these problems by providing a system for purchase checkout of bulk produce items which does not require that a bar code label be applied to the produce before checkout, and permits self-checkout of a full range of produce items. This is accomplished by providing a means for store intervention wherein a limited number of operators can intervene electronically to determine the nature of a product and to download pricing data to any of a number of checkout terminals which are operated by consumers in a self-checkout mode.